VIDEO: Real Movie Theater Horror Stories that Really Happened

We all love a good horror story, the kind that really scares you and you remember it forever and it keeps you up at night thinking about it.

Sure, it makes no sense that we would like to be scared but this is how people work. It the story is real and has actually happened then it seems to entice us even more so.

Most people run screaming when they see a ghost. But others prefer to see a movie about it. But while it’s normal to see horror movies, it’s not so normal to be part of a horror scene in real life in the movie theater.

While some real stories include weird and creepy people being inside the movie theaters with normal people there are others that are not so human. According to the-line-up.com, there are quite a few horror haunted movie theaters in the world.

Egyptian Theatre, Park City, Utah – In 1898, a fire consumed most of Park City, including its ornate Opera House. In its place, the town built the Dewey Theatre, an art house that remained the city’s cultural saving grace—until record snowfall caused its roof to collapse.

Inspired by the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, the town began new construction on the building, consulted an Egyptologist, and dubbed the place the Egyptian Theatre in 1926. Today its postcard-worthy marquee is stamped on any and all things Sundance Film Festival.

That said, you might be sharing your seat with the restless spirits of the past at this famed movie house. Reports of freaky unexplained mysteries go down nightly.

Hair-raising activity includes loud footsteps when no one’s around, doors flying open, disembodied screams—and a man-ghost with a bad attitude; he’s been known to actually shove people to the ground.

Cinefamily at The Silent Movie Theatre. Los Angeles, California – Though silent in name, this little theater clamors with things that’ll make you shout bloody murder.

Back in 1942, a man named John Hampton opened the place as Old Time Movies, a playhouse dedicated to silent films, which he preserved himself.

Ironically, it was his love of film that killed him: Hampton got cancer from the toxins used to preserve his films and died in 1990. The story only gets darker: The theater’s next proprietor, Lawrence Austin, was the target of a murder plot set in motion by his coworker, and was shot to death by a hitman in the theater lobby in 1997.

Today, we know the place as the Cinefamily, a single-screen movie house dedicated to weird and wonderful films. And though we can really get into its Friday Night Frights series, we’re buying a ticket to glimpse the theater’s original owners in all of their ghostly glory. Word has it Hampton haunts the upstairs, while Austin calls the lobby his post-mortem stomping grounds.

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles, California – This iconic movie house is surrounded by concrete hand- and footprints of Hollywood’s finest and guarded by a couple of giant dog sculptures straight out of Ghostbusters. It hosted the Academy Awards from 1944 to 1946—but its “real” claim to fame lies in lore.

Ever heard of Victor Killian? He was a surly, one-eyed thespian who made a decent living as a character actor in the 30s and 40s. That is, until the movie studios blacklisted him in the 1950s.

Killian soon fell on rough times, and died from being beaten to death by robbers. It’s said that he still roams the forecourt of the Chinese Theatre looking for the man or men responsible. Tread lightly upon entering—you don’t want to get ghost-slapped.